BRUSSELS, Oct 13 (AFP) - A senior official from US aircraft manufacturer Boeing said Wednesday the WTO's dispute settlement procedure could be the venue for fesh US-European Union negotiations on a new subsidy agreement.
"We want to get back to get negotiations going and there is a beautiful system for that -- the first phase at the WTO," Jorris Vos, responsible for Boeing's relations with the EU and NATO, told AFP.
The United States and the EU, at odds over state assistance to Boeing and its European rival Airbus, filed separate requests for consultations on a new agreement -- replacing a 1992 accord -- at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization last week.
The 1992 agreement governed state aid to the aircraft manufacturing industry on both sides of the Atlantic.
The initial phase of the WTO procedure calls for 60 days of consultations, which if unsuccessful give way to an adversarial encounter before a WTO aribitration panel.
"We want to make (it) absolutely clear -- we will do everything to prevent having to go to the next stage," Vos said.
He added that a new subsidy agreement "should be equitable, which we feel 1992 is not, and it should be transparent, which 1992 is not."
"What we should do is sit down and write an agreement that for both sides is acceptable."